Grander Check
Grander Check is a 2008 American computer-animated action-comedy film produced by Paramount Animation. It is Paramount Animation's first fully computer-animated film. The film was directed by Brandon Hancock from a screenplay by Ruairi Robinson and a story by Dew and Brandon Hancock, and stars the voices of Nathan Kress, Dan Castellaneta, Neil Patrick Harris, Michael Kastek, Danny McBride, Daniel Tosh, John Oliver, and Verne Troyer. The film follows a young 17-year-old teenager named Danny Garza who runs a coffee shop named Grander Check. One night, King Randy steals Grander Check's coffee recipe, so Danny teams up with Harry Garza and Cube Garza to get the recipe back. Grander Check premiered at the The Egyptian Theater on September 30, 2008, and was released in the United States on October 3, 2008. It received positive reviews from critics and was a box office success, grossing $591 million worldwide on its $65 million budget. Grander Check won the 2008 Annie Award for Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production for Jon Stewart, for his voice performance as Harry Garza, and was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, but lost to Disney/Pixar's WALL-E. The film's success helped spawn an expanded franchise, with two sequels — Grander Check 2 ''(2013), ''Grander Check 3 ''(2018) — and a television series. Plot ''Coming soon! Cast : Main article: List of Grander Check characters :* Nathan Kress as Danny Garza, a 17-year-old teenage boy who runs a hot chocolate shop. As "Danny" is actually a feminine name, Hancock originally wanted to change his name to "Danny", but he decided to "get it over with". In the UK releases of the film, Danny was renamed as "Danny" to avoid any references to a colloquial term in the United Kingdom for a peripatetic teacher. Danny is also renamed "Danny" in the Japanese dub as well. :* Jon Stewart as Harry Garza, whom Danny meets on his journey. :* Neil Patrick Harris as Cube Garza, an cube who helps Danny to get the recipe back. :* Michael Kastek as King Randy, who steals Grander Check's secret hot chocolate recipe. :* Danny McBride as Nathan Ned, A 14-year-old boy, Harry goes to school and discovers that his teacher is pregnant. Production Development Coming soon! Casting On February 12, 2007, it was announced that Nathan Kress joined the voice cast. By April 27, 2007, actors Jon Stewart and Neil Patrick Harris were in negotiations to join the cast. On May 16, Micheal Kastek and Danny McBride were confirmed additions to the cast. At San Diego Comic-Con in July 2007, Daniel Tosh joined the cast. On January 11, 2008, it was reported by Variety that John Oliver had joined the cast. Verne Troyer confirmed via Twitter on January 23, 2008 that she would also be a part of the film's cast. Animation Grander Check was animated in-house at Comega Studios' headquarters in West Hollywood, California. The production crew used simple 3D modeling in Autodesk Maya as to determine camera locations, lens, and angles, rough lighting, character and prop placement, and which way the characters would be looking and expressing. The pre-visualization crew were able to use the 3D backdrops that became more detailed throughout the film's development to integrate the simple 3D character models, and then were able to test the Toon Boom animations on top of these scenes using the placement established by Maya, helping to speed up the production. CGI animation for props and sets were animated by the Sony Pictures Imageworks animation department, and King Randy T-1000 was animated in CGI (outlined in 2D) by Film Roman and Rough Draft Studios. The use of CGI was also supervised, directed, and animated by C. Elbourn, using Softimage for CGI animation and visual effects. The production of the film ended by July 29, 2008. Post Production The sound design work was done at Skywalker Sound in Marin County, California Music The soundtrack, released on the Capitol Records/ Sony Music Soundtrax labels, features tracks by the star of the film Raven-Symoné, Grammy-winners Wyclef Jean, Brooks & Dunn, Chapin Mary Chapin Carpenter, and various other artists. Track listing # "Terrible Lie" - Nine Inch Nails # "6 Underground" - Sneaker Pimps # "Come As You Are" - Nirvana # "Heart of Glass" - Blondie # "Whip It" - Devo # "Cars" - Gary Numan # "Getting" - Plaid # "Pardon Me" - Incubus # "Even Deeper" - Nine Inch Nails # "The Reason" - Hoobastank Release On August 7, 2006, Paramount Pictures announced that they would distribute and market the film worldwide except in China. The film was showcased at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival on May 10 along with eight other Paramount Pictures features to help sell the film to international distributors. Grander Check was originally scheduled for release in the United States on November 7, 2008, but it was subsequently moved up to October 3, 2008, with the release date being taken by Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. Theatrically, the film was accompanied by an episode of Tj's World, The Ultimate Fighter. A private premiere screening was held in New York City on September 21, 2008, twelve days prior to the nationwide release date. Marketing Upon its release, Burger King had a promotional tie-in with seven toys including Danny Garza, Harry Garza, King Randy, Nathan Ned, and Henry Boys with a paid Kids' Meal order. Ice cream chain Baskin-Robbins also promoted the film for its new Danny & Harry's Loaded Grander Check ice cream that consists of Hershey's chocolate, hot fudge, crushed chocolate cookies, whipped cream and chocolate syrup. Trailers * The teaser trailer was released on December 21, 2007, and was shown before Honeks!, The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie, Horton Hears a Who!, Speed Racer, and Metro Cone 2. * The theatrical trailer was released on June 6, 2008, and was shown before Kung Fu Panda, WALL-E, Heroball, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. * TV spots began to air between September 4 and October 24 of 2008. Video game : Main article: Grander Check (video game) A video game based on the film was released on September 23, 2008 for the Nintendo DS, Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, and Greeny Arcade 256. Home media The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 10, 2009. Reception Box office On its opening weekend, it earned $72,094,840. It went on to earn $323,782,019 in the U.S. and $267,929,828 in other territories resulting in a worldwide total of $591,711,847. Critical reception On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Grander Check holds an 77% based off of 208 critics. On Metacritic, it assigns an normalized average score of 59, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Accolades Franchise Main article: Grander Check (franchise) Television series Main article: The Grander Check Show Television specials Halloween Main article: A Grander Check Halloween A halloween television special, A Grander Check Halloween, aired on CBS in October of 2010. Christmas Main article: Grander Check Holiday A christmas television special, Grander Check Holiday (Italian Food), aired on CBS in November of 2011. Sequels Main articles: Grander Check 2, Grander Check 3 Grander Check was followed by two sequels: Grander Check 2 (2013) and Grander Check 3 ''(2018). A fourth film, ''Grander Check: The Family Situation, is scheduled for release in November 2020. Spin-off Main article: Cube Garza: A Grander Check Movie A spin-off based on the film is set for release in May of 2021 and will focus on Cube Garza.